Labor misleads Gippslanders over rail crisis

With V/Line passengers required to pay for train travel again starting Monday, Member for Morwell Russell Northe said the Andrews Government was misleading Gippsland commuters about the extent of disruptions on the Gippsland line.

“The Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan has stated that service patterns on the regional network are stable and 80 per cent of services are operating as trains,” Mr Northe said.

“Stable certainly isn’t the word being used by my constituents who continue to contact me with stories of long delays in travel time between Traralgon and Melbourne.

“And the Minister’s 80 per cent figure is also not accurate with V/Line’s website stating that only four of the available services on the Gippsland line are operating as rail services, the rest are operating as coaches.”

Mr Northe said replacement timetables indicated that 10 Traralgon and Bairnsdale trains were scheduled to operate as normal daily with 27 services listed as coach replacement.

“The Minister has mislead Gippsland commuters about the extent of disruption and only by looking closely into timetables can you see that it’s actually 72.97 per cent of services daily operating as coaches, not trains,” Mr Northe said.

Mr Northe said the Minister was more focused on apologies and her own frustration with the system rather than providing the public with information on how the Andrews Government was fixing the problems.

“Comments made by the Minister do not alleviate the concerns and frustrations of Gippsland commuters who are telling me their travel is delayed by hours on end,” Mr Northe said.

“We’ve also heard the wheel wear issue may disrupt services for months beyond the expected mid-March return of rail services which is extremely concerning for my constituents.

“Gippsland commuters continue to face delays and a compromised service and Minister Allan needs to come clean and tell regional commuters exactly how long this chaos will continue.”

Media Release 4/2/2016 – Jacinta Allan“With the service pattern now stable and 80 per cent of services operating as trains, regular fare arrangements will return to timetabled services.”